I am requesting partial support for the operation of the Gordon Research Conference (GRC) Conference on Second Messengers and Protein Phosphorylation. This GRC is usually held at Kimball Union Academy in Meridin, New Hampshire, which provides a familiar venue to promote open interaction among participants. This GRC begins on Sunday night June 9, 2002 with a plenary speaker and concludes on Thursday evening June 13. The Conference focuses on protein kinase signal transduction mechanisms that regulate cellular growth, survival and metabolism. A full understanding of these signaling mechanisms is scientifically and clinically important because their failure plays a direct role in contemporary health problems that affect millions of people worldwide. The speakers are encouraged to integrate biochemical, structural, cell biological and genomic approaches into providing a comprehensive understanding of the molecular aspects of signaling mechanisms. The plenary speaker will be selected to set the stage for the conference and challenge the participants to think about signal transduction from a novel perspective. The conference will consist of 8 sessions, each with a discussion leader and at least four speakers, selected from investigators who have made important recent contributions; at least 20% of the speakers are women or members or minorities groups. Speakers in each session will develop the structure and function of important paradigms in signal transduction and relate these systems to disease mechanisms and potential treatment strategies. I will select 135 participants from applicants, including representatives from industry and academia, senior scientists, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students. Participants are encouraged to present poster on new and interesting results each afternoon. Importantly, the conference provides a forum for young investigators to see the connection between fundamental scientific inquiry and the application of scientific methods to the design of efficacious interventions for human diseases, including cancer, diabetes, obesity, aging and neurodegeneration. To emphasize this goal, four poster presentations that complement the theme of the meeting will be selected for brief oral presentations during the major sessions.